One example of a conventional combination weigher which weighs objects to be weighed, such as detergents and confectionary, and comprises weighing hoppers each including two chambers (weighing chambers), is disclosed in, for example, a patent document 1. A schematic construction of the conventional combination weigher is shown in FIG. 4.
The conventional combination weigher is constructed in such a manner that a center base body (body) 69 is disposed at a center of the combination weigher, and a dispersion feeder 61 is mounted to an upper portion of the center base body 69 to radially disperse objects to be weighed supplied from an external supplying device by vibration. Around the dispersion feeder 61, linear feeders 62 are provided to transfer the objects to be weighed sent from the dispersion feeder 61 into respective feeding hoppers 63 by vibration. A plurality of feeding hoppers 63, weighing hoppers 64, and memory hoppers 65 are disposed below the linear feeders 62 and are arranged circularly around the center base body 69 in such a manner that each feeding hopper 63, each weighing hopper 64, and each memory hopper 65 correspond to the associated one of the linear feeder 62. The dispersion feeder 61, the linear feeders 62, the feeding hoppers 63, the weighing hoppers 64, and the memory hoppers 65 are mounted to the center base body 69, and drive units therefore are accommodated in the center base body 69. Each weighing hopper 64 is attached with a weight sensor 66 which measures the weight of the objects to be weighed inside the weighing hopper 64. Each weight sensor 66 is accommodated along with the drive units in the center base body 69. A collecting chute 67 is disposed laterally of and below the weighing hoppers 64 and the memory hoppers 65. The objects to be weighed are discharged from the weighing hoppers 64 and the memory hoppers 65 which have been selected to form a combination, slide down on the collecting chute 67, and are sent out to a packaging machine through an outlet provided at the collecting chute 67.
Each feeding hopper 63 is divided into two chambers 63a and 63b, each of which is provided with a gate 70 to discharge the objects to be weighed to the weighing hopper 64. Each weighing hopper 64 is divided into two chambers 64a and 64b. Each of the weighing chambers 64a and 64b is provided with a gate 71 to discharge the objects to be weighed onto the collecting chute 67 and a gate 72 to discharge the objects to be weighed to the memory hopper 65. Each memory hopper 65 is divided into two chambers 65a and 65 which are respectively provided with gates 73 to discharge the objects to be weighed onto the collecting chute 67. A feeding guide board 68 is provided above the feeding hopper 63 to select the chamber 63a or 63b to which the objects to be weighed sent from the linear feeder 62 are fed. The objects to be weighed in the chambers 63a and 63b of each feeding hopper 63 are fed to the chambers 64a and 64b of the weighing hopper 64 located immediately below the chambers 63a and 63b. The weight sensor 66 measures weight of the objects to be weighed in the chambers 64a and 64b. To the chambers 65a and 65b of the memory hopper 65, the objects to be weighed are fed from the corresponding chambers 64a and 64b of the weighing hopper 64 located immediately thereabove.
In the above described conventional combination weigher, combination calculation is performed based on the measured values of the objects to be weighed inside the chambers 64a and 64b of each weighing hopper 64 and inside the chambers 65a and 65b of each memory hopper 65, and the objects to be weighed are discharged from the chambers (64a, 64b, 65a, 65b) selected by the combination calculation onto the collecting chute 67.